• Katharina Mader

• Friederike Wütscher

31.3.2004 Professor Dr. Jürgen Mittelstraß (University of Konstanz)

At the onset of his lecture, Professor Dr. Jürgen Mittelstraß remarked that philosophy has, since its beginnings during the Greek enlightenment, had a function of scepticism as opposed to the validity claim of factuality existent within society and science. Present-day science and modern democratically constituted societies, however, tend to question the utility of philosophy. Mittelstraß argued that this misjudgement of the role of philosophy lies in the widespread image of a philosophy which amounts to nothing more than administering its historical mentors’ writings. Against that, he attempted to demonstrate, using the example of the public debate over the cloning of humans, that philosophy still plays an indispensable role with regard to the essentials of science and social orientation for political action. Paying recourse to Kant’s programmatic writing “Was heißt sich im Denken Orientieren?” Mittelstraß sketched a concept of philosophy which sees its role, rooted in the Enlightenment’s self-conception, as one of mediation between the lived-in world and science. This lecture was the opening event of the academy´s 2004 spring conference on the topic of the interdisciplinary function of philosophy.
Professor Dr. phil. Dr. h.c. mult. Jürgen Mittelstraß has held a chair in Philosophy and Theory of Science at the Universität Konstanz since 1970. Since 1990 he has also been the director of the Center of Philosophy and Theory of Science. Formerly a member of the Bundeskanzler’s Council for Research, Technology, and Innovation, he is also a member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin), of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (Halle/Saale), of the Academia Europaea (London, Vice President, 1994–2000, President since 2002), the Pontificia Academia Scientiarum (Rome), the Konvent für Technikwissenschaften der Union der Deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften e.V. (Akatech), corresponding member of the Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (Paris), and the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien).